Eric's voice could be heard outside the door, but Jeff's boa constrictor ears couldn't make out the words. He just knew from the tenor and vibration that it was Eric.
"My snake just arrived this morning. It was gift from my 'rents," Eric said prattling on as he came through the door carrying a big brown paper bag with a rectangular box shape thing. Jeff looked at it, and his tongue flickered. There were a couple somethings inside the bag. They were alive. They smelled like food. His tongue tasted the air again. The guy with Eric smelled too. Mate? No, Eric was straight, he was sure of it. Maybe a gay friend? Mate, was the answer that came back. Were-snake? Was there such a thing.
"So, have you named her yet?" Eric's buddy asked taking his backpack off.
"Not yet," Eric said, "My pets' names usually come to me, as I get to know them. I'm sure she'll love Snidely."
She. Why do they keep calling me she? Jeff suddenly recalled just checking reality shift. He recalled seeing a documentary on PBS. One that Eric wanted to watch. Snakes had reversed sex chromosomes like birds. So a homozygous human is female (ie. two x-chromosomes), and a heterozygous human is male (XY), but in snakes and birds the homozygous one is male (Two identical sex chromosomes- usually designated WW), and the heterozygous one is female (WZ). Jeff had shifted his reality, but hadn't adjusted his chromosomes.
The other guy opened his backpack and the smell hit Jeff. MATE. A tiny forked tongue flickered out of the zipper followed by a handsome flat triangular head. Snidely Snake was a real stud. What was Jeff thinking? He was thinking just like the horny female snake he was.
"How about Nell for her name?"
"Nell?"
"Yeah, Snidely Whiplash is named for a cartoon villain from Dudley DoRight, and Nell was the girl he was always tying up."
"Nell, hm?" Eric liked the short syllabation. Maybe, he thought. "It's a good name. I'll see, thanks for the suggestion, Richie." He unwaps his parcel to reveal two rats in a cage.
"The get sleepy after eating, so let's see how they get on before feeding them..."